Always family, never orphanages
Client: Hope and Homes for Children
Challenge
Orphanages, though often set up with good intentions, perpetuate child neglect on a physical, mental, and emotional level. Centred around the de-institutionalisation of childcare and re-empowerment of family support structures, Hope & Homes for Children is the major player in the abolition of orphanages globally. The charity’s unique operational infrastructure working from top-down global advocacy and legislative reform to bottom-up child/family repatriation and sustained community care, is incredibly effective.
Hope and Homes for Children wanted to develop and define their core narrative illustrating their complex work and incredible efficacy. However, with an intricate roster of stakeholders, patrons and volunteers, creating the right conditions to unlock the full knowledge of the team and reflect the deep passion for the brand, would be no mean feat.
Julia Mazorodze, Head of Brand and Communications, talks to eatbigfish’s Toby Brown.
Solution
We took Hope and Homes through an accelerated Challenger Identity program that would form a coherent, agreed, believed-in plan to enable the organisation to identify and define the core truth of who they were.
Surfacing the past and present of the charity’s story through qualitative data-collection formed a shared foundation to give all parties a mutual understanding of the journey so far, and alignment on the journey ahead. Using bespoke frameworks to articulate the generative basis for their new narrative without losing their rich history, a diverse collective of Hope and Homes personnel were put through their paces across two days of workshops.
Three substantial core narrative routes were developed along with our guidance and recommendations on each route’s challenges and opportunities. The prevailing route to ‘Make Orphanages History’ allowed the team to lead with their mission, put their monster front and centre and be bold in their organisational goals.
“People really loved the energy and were asking to join in half-day Zoom workshops — that’s the only time in my career that’s happened!”
Impact
Enabling a cross-organisational pollination of ideas allowed the teams to align with the brand’s mission and see route agnostic commonalities that could be further developed as part of the charity’s positioning. Newly invigorated with a Challenger Mindset, the team were empowered with the foundational tools and ideological building blocks to forge a noticeably different positioning in a category rife with convention. This has since gone on to form the basis of a new visual and verbal identity and ignite passion across the organisation for the next stage of Hope and Homes legacy.
“We have the tools that we need now, to communicate our story to the outside world.”
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